Yesterday, I opened my christmas calendar and there was a picture of the beautiful Finnish flag as it was the independence day of our country which tends to be quite a big deal in Finland. And apparently over here as well! Ok, not a big deal but acknowledged in some way.
Every year on our independence day, there is a big fancy ball at the president's palace in Helsinki which is streamed live on TV. I was surprisingly upset about the thought of not being able to watch the celebrations this year as I do not even recognize half of the people invited, but it's just one of those traditions that would be hard to let go of. Luckily there is a place called The Finnish Church in London. They managed to stream the broadcast live from Finland, so me and my friend could (with great respect towards tradition) sit there and judge what everyone was wearing just as we would have back at home.
It was extremely refreshing to be able to speak Finnish to strangers as for the past three months every new acquaintance I have made has resulted from me not applying my native language in practice. I met some very nice people, bought some Finnish chocolate (yes there's a Finnish food shop at the church) and listened to the choir sing Christmas songs in Finnish. For a moment there, I forgot I was in England. The event made me - not homesick - but very excited about going home in a week!
Satu
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